BRINGING THE POWER – SRAM’S NEW EAGLE POWERTRAIN
SRAM dives into the world of E-bike drive units
BRINGING THE POWER – SRAM’S NEW EAGLE POWERTRAIN
Building on the momentum of its Eagle Transmission debut earlier this year, SRAM has introduced its first foray into the world of E-MTB motor and drive units with the Eagle Powertrain. Designed to be a seamless, holistic, and simple E-bike system, the Powertrain fully integrates with the Eagle Transmission drivetrain systems and enables multiple points of personalization through the AXS app.
The tune on the Powertrain was developed with SRAM’s BlackBox athletes, and claimed to provide a natural feeling and traction-generating application of power that is “profiled to work in concert with how real riders actually pedal”. The SRAM Drive Unit is powered by BROSE and offers a hard-hitting 90Nm of maximum torque and 680W of peak power, with either a compact 630Wh or full-size 720Wh battery that is removed with a single allen key. The control unit of the system is the AXS Bridge Display, which shows relevant system information on a compact and full-color screen and is controlled via the AXS Pod controllers, making for a clean and wire-free e-bike cockpit. The AXS App allows you to customize the functions of each Pod button, utilizing both short and long holds to control all aspects of the bike with up to 8 different functions.
New to SRAM’s mountain bike lineup, the Eagle Powertrain system introduces Auto Shift and Coast Shift features to the Transmission groupset. As the name implies, Auto Shift uses an algorithm to automatically shift to the optimal gear according to the rider’s power and cadence, while still having the ability to manually drop into a higher or lower cog with the Pod controller. Coast Shift allows the rider to shift gears without having to pedal, made possible by the chainring moving freely from the cranks and essentially spinning whenever the rear wheel is spinning. A few riders on the Wrecking Crew are quite excited to see how these features translate to trails that see a number of climbs and descents.
SRAM keeps things simple when it comes to the ride modes for the Eagle Powertrain: Range and Rally Mode. Range Mode (as the name implies) is used when maximum battery range is desired, on more mellow and flowy trails, or when you’re running low on power and need to make it back to the truck before you run out of juice. Rally Mode, on the other hand, is when maximum power is wanted and for steep and punchy climbs. Both modes are fully tuneable and customizable in the AXS app, letting you dial in the 90Nm of power to how you see fit.
At the moment, there are four brands that will be integrating the SRAM Powertrain system into their E-bikes (with more in the future): Propain, Nukeproof, Transition, and GASGAS Bicycles. All of the information and details can be found on the SRAM website. Be on the lookout for our full-length review of the Eagle Powertrain soon!
